BIG SKY — The Knight Building, a 95-bedroom residential complex, is the latest project from Lone Mountain Land Company. The building is designed to provide both privacy and community for local workers, with more than 10 shared kitchens, dining areas and recreation spaces.
Pictured: The Knight Building (credit — Lone Mountain Land Company)
“If you are working in Big Sky, you should have the opportunity to live in Big Sky,” said Matt Kidd, president of Lone Mountain Land Company.
“It’s got a nice balance of both private individual and group communal spaces,” Kidd added.
The building is named after Buck and Helen Knight, who opened Buck’s T-4 Lodge in 1946. For senior project manager Clayton Peacock, seeing the property come back to life is personal.
“I actually grew up in Big Sky and was a frequent visitor on the Bucks and for so long it was unused and kind of just whittling away,” Peacock said.
Kidd said the company is working to honor the past while meeting today’s housing needs.
“We will reopen the restaurant which of course many people love from the history of Big Sky. We hope to have that ready to go by the winter season,” Kidd said.
The fully furnished units come with most essentials, but not everything inside is new. Dining chairs repurposed from Buck’s have been brought into the space as a nod to the lodge’s history.
Pictured: Furnished interior (credit — Lone Mountain Land Company)
Sustainability also played a key role in the project. Project manager Larson Bidstrup said the construction process is unique in North America.
“This may be one of the first in North America to be a CLT modular construction,” Bidstrup said.
CLT, or cross laminated timber, uses modular design and robotic fabrication to speed up construction. The Knight Building was completed in just 11 months.
Bidstrup saidthe approach benefits the environment as well.
“Cut down and harvest smaller trees and leave the big ones and allow the forest to grow healthier and stronger,” Peacock said.
WATCH: Behind-the-scenes look at the construction and completion of the Knight Building
While the building’s construction methods are innovative, Peacock said the focus remains on affordability.
“It is pretty impressive to say that you’re able to implement these systems within a building and still achieve an attainable for the end user which is the goal,” Peacock said.
The Knight Building is part of Lone Mountain Land Company’s $400 million investment in affordable housing across Big Sky.
“We have largely solved the need for seasonal and workforce housing, and our next areas of focus is to continuing to build out housing for families and couples and more than individual housing units,” Kidd said.
